Bas-Rhin
Encyclopedia
Bas-Rhin is a department of France
. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace
region
, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.
.
In the mid-1790s, following the French occupation
of the entire left bank of the Rhine, the northern boundary of the department was extended north beyond the Lauter to the Queich river to include the areas of Annweiler am Trifels
, Landau in der Pfalz
, Bad Bergzabern
, and Wörth am Rhein
. However, upon Napoleon
's second defeat
in 1815, the Congress of Vienna
reassigned the areas north of the Lauter to Bavaria
; and those territories are now presently located in the neighbouring German state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
The department has twice been incorporated into Germany
: from 1871 (after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
) until the end of World War I
in 1918, and again briefly during World War II
(from 1940 to 1945) during the German occupation of France.
.
To the north of Bas-Rhin lies the Palatinate forest (Pfälzerwald) in the German State
of Rhineland-Palatinate
, and the German State of Baden-Württemberg
lies to the east. To the south lies the department of Haut-Rhin
, the town of Colmar
and southern Alsace
, and to the west the department of Moselle
in Lorraine
.
On its south-western corner, Bas-Rhin also joins the department of Vosges
.
Alsace and the adjacent Moselle department
apply their own legal code for certain areas of the law. The statutes in question date from the period 1871 - 1919 when the area was part of the German Empire
. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France
in 1919, many in central government assumed that the recovered territories would be subject to French law.
Local resistance to a total acceptance of the French legal code arose in Alsace because in various respects reforms under Bismarck
had left Germany with a relatively advanced legal system, especially with regard to civil and social rights. After much discussion and uncertainty, Paris accepted in 1924 that Alsace should retain its German originating laws in respect of certain matters, especially with regard to hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance and social rights. Since many of the relevant texts have never been formally translated, occasions continue to arise where reference has to be made to German-language texts.
Numerous other anomalies arise which challenge the centralising instincts of the state
. These include the absence, in Alsace and Moselle, of any formal separation between church and state
: several mainstream denominations of the Christian church benefit from state funding, in defiance of principals applied rigorously in the rest of France.
Another manifestation of Alsatian legal differences arises on the railways. Where trains
run on double tracks, the rule here is that they should travel on the right-hand track. In the rest of France the trains, unlike the cars, travel on the left.
, the chef lieu
(principal city) of Bas-Rhin is one of two seats of the European Parliament
, the other being Brussels
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
region
Régions of France
France is divided into 27 administrative regions , 22 of which are in Metropolitan France, and five of which are overseas. Corsica is a territorial collectivity , but is considered a region in mainstream usage, and is even shown as such on the INSEE website...
, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.
History
Bas-Rhin is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790, during the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
In the mid-1790s, following the French occupation
Peace of Basel
The Peace of Basel of 1795 consists of three peace treaties involving France .* The first of the three treaties of 1795, France made peace with Prussia on 5 April; , * The Second was with Spain on 22 July, ending the War of the Pyrenees; and*...
of the entire left bank of the Rhine, the northern boundary of the department was extended north beyond the Lauter to the Queich river to include the areas of Annweiler am Trifels
Annweiler am Trifels
Annweiler am Trifels, or Annweiler is a town in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Queich, 12 km west of Landau, and on the railway from Landau to Pirmasens....
, Landau in der Pfalz
Landau
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz is an autonomous city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town , a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the...
, Bad Bergzabern
Bad Bergzabern
Bad Bergzabern is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, on the German Wine Route in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated near the border with France, on the south-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest, approximately southwest of Landau....
, and Wörth am Rhein
Wörth am Rhein
Wörth am Rhein is a municipality in the southernmost part of the district of Germersheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. 10 km west of the city center of Karlsruhe and just north of the German-French border....
. However, upon Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's second defeat
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
in 1815, the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
reassigned the areas north of the Lauter to Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
; and those territories are now presently located in the neighbouring German state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
.
The department has twice been incorporated into Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
: from 1871 (after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
) until the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1918, and again briefly during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(from 1940 to 1945) during the German occupation of France.
Geography
The Rhine has always been of great historical and economic importance to the area, and it forms the eastern border of Bas-Rhin. The area is also home to some of the foothills of the VosgesVosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...
.
To the north of Bas-Rhin lies the Palatinate forest (Pfälzerwald) in the German State
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, and the German State of Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
lies to the east. To the south lies the department of Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin is a département of the Alsace region of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departements of Alsace, although is still densely populated compared to the rest of France.-Subdivisions:The department...
, the town of Colmar
Colmar
Colmar is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It is the capital of the department. Colmar is also the seat of the highest jurisdiction in Alsace, the appellate court....
and southern Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, and to the west the department of Moselle
Moselle
Moselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
in Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
.
On its south-western corner, Bas-Rhin also joins the department of Vosges
Vosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...
.
Law
See also the French wikipedia entry (in French) on local law in Alsace for a summary of the position, or the English wikipedia entry (in English) for a brief summary on the same subject.Alsace and the adjacent Moselle department
Moselle
Moselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
apply their own legal code for certain areas of the law. The statutes in question date from the period 1871 - 1919 when the area was part of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
in 1919, many in central government assumed that the recovered territories would be subject to French law.
Local resistance to a total acceptance of the French legal code arose in Alsace because in various respects reforms under Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
had left Germany with a relatively advanced legal system, especially with regard to civil and social rights. After much discussion and uncertainty, Paris accepted in 1924 that Alsace should retain its German originating laws in respect of certain matters, especially with regard to hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance and social rights. Since many of the relevant texts have never been formally translated, occasions continue to arise where reference has to be made to German-language texts.
Numerous other anomalies arise which challenge the centralising instincts of the state
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. These include the absence, in Alsace and Moselle, of any formal separation between church and state
Laïcité
French secularism, in French, laïcité is a concept denoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of...
: several mainstream denominations of the Christian church benefit from state funding, in defiance of principals applied rigorously in the rest of France.
Another manifestation of Alsatian legal differences arises on the railways. Where trains
SNCF
The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...
run on double tracks, the rule here is that they should travel on the right-hand track. In the rest of France the trains, unlike the cars, travel on the left.
Miscellaneous
StrasbourgStrasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, the chef lieu
Chef-lieu
A chef-lieu is a town or city that is pre-eminent, from an administrative perspective, in any given sub-division of territory in France and some French-speaking countries.-In Algeria:...
(principal city) of Bas-Rhin is one of two seats of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, the other being Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
See also
- Communes of the Bas-Rhin department sorted by arrondissements and cantons
- Communities of Communes of the Bas-Rhin départementCommunities of Communes of the Bas-Rhin départementThe département of Bas-Rhin includes 1 urban community and 46 Communities of Communes gathering 517 communes over the 526 of the département. The commune of Siltzheim is part of the agglomeration community Sarreguemines Confluences which is in the département of Moselle.- Communities of Communes :*...
- Arrondissements of the Bas-Rhin départementArrondissements of the Bas-Rhin départementThe 7 arrondissements of the Bas-Rhin department are: Arrondissement Subprefecture Cantons Communes Population in 1990 Population in 1999 Population increaseArrondissement of HaguenauHaguenau356111,201120,4458.31%...
- Cantons of the Bas-Rhin départementCantons of the Bas-Rhin départementThe following is a list of the 44 cantons of the Bas-Rhin department, in France, sorted by arrondissement:-Arrondissement of Haguenau :* Bischwiller* Haguenau* Niederbronn-les-Bains-Arrondissement of Molsheim :* Molsheim* Rosheim...